About E-Mentoring

E-mentoring is a great way for adults to engage with our middle school students and get involved with ACES programming. Beginning in November, you will email once per week with an ACES student. You'll help them practice appropriate communication, grammar, and, as a professional, you'll provide a life-long example of what is achievable beyond graduation!

E-Mentoring 2017!

mails should be sent to your mentee by 12pm (central time) on Tuesdays

Students will respond on Wednesday or Thursday, depending on their program day.

Prompts for the next week will be sent on Fridays. Please wait to send your next email until you receive them!

Two email addresses should be copied on every email sent - ementoring@aces4kids.org AND your mentee's site leader.

All questions should be directed to ementoring@aces4kids.org

FAQs

How do I know who my student is?

We use the information on your application to pair you with a student. You will receive information about your mentee in mid-November and details regarding the schedule for emailing kick-off.

What if my student isn't responding?

There are a variety of reasons why a student may not respond right away. Emailing takes place during ACES programming on a designated day each week. If your mentee isn't in attendance that means that they will not send an email that week. Attendance also depends on the after-school schedule and occasionally there is no programming on certain days.

If you have not heard from your mentee in multiple weeks, reach out to the Site Leader via email (and cc ementoring@aces4kids.org) and they will be able to give you more insight!

How formal should my emails be?

They do not need to be overly formal, but should be grammatically correct. Feel free to use a conversational tone and vocabulary that feels natural to you.

I don't know what to write about.

Be yourself! Students have a knack for detecting when adults are being genuine, even over email. Appropriate humor is encouraged. LOL. Have a funny story about a pet or kid you'd like to share? Go for it!

What was the match criteria?

ACES has tried to match you with a student with a similar interest level in both math and sports. When possible, we tried to provide matches based on other indicated interests, professional careers, and personality. Additionally, matches are gender-specific. (Females matched with females, males with males.)

I really connected with my mentee! I want to send them something/hang out with them/adopt them!

Slow down! We love that you have a connection with your students and want to get more involved. However, because of students identity protection and privacy laws, and because we work through our school sites, we have to keep boundaries in place. Please reach out to Zong Vang, Education Program Director (ZongVang@aces4kids.org) or Christina Saunders, Executive Director (christinaes@aces4kids.org) if you have an idea you'd like to discuss.

We encourage continued communication and encourage retention of our e-mentors. We are working on additional opportunities for contact. However, don't feel bad if you live out of state. We believe that strong mentoring relationships can be built from strong and consistent communication.

Do I need to like sports?

Nope! While it is a bonus, the focus of the program is to build strong mentor-mentee relationships and communication skills.